"Forbes is the kind of brand where people self-select," says Kendall Crolius, its chief marketing officer. "If we're not infuriating a certain proportion of the people, we're not doing our job right."


That Forbes is "a little polarizing" is part of its strength as a brand, Kendall explains. "There are people out there -- both on the audience side and on the advertiser side -- who don't understand the brand well enough," she continues. "If they understood it a little better, they would come into the fold."

That, says Kendall, is what she does for a living -- building understanding of the ethos that is Forbes, that is, a passion for a life well lived.

It's not just about the money, you know?

For Kendall, it is a passion that took root in Connecticut, where she grew up and still lives. After graduating from the hallowed Greens Farms Academy in Westport, she headed out to Princeton in the mid-1970s, when women were still a novelty in the Ivy League. That, she says, was "kind of fun." Her major: Old and Middle English.

She actually worked for several years as a stage manager and lighting designer. The theatre, she says, is a "wonderful" training ground for many things. "It is an endeavor that is collaborative, it's a team sport, an opportunity to create something and be part of something that is bigger than you are."

At the very least it is where she met her husband, Stephen Stout, an actor and director. "We agreed that one of us ought to have a real job and so it was me," she laughs.

I have to accomplish something remarkable in the rest of my life or I'm going to be remembered for Knitting With Dog Hair!

So, in 1982, she joined J. Walter Thompson. The plan was to stay there for a year or so to get some corporate credentials, but she ended up on a 20-year tour. Burger King, Kellogg's, Warner-Lambert, Citibank and Red Cross. Somewhere in there, 'round about 1994, she penned a book called, Knitting With Dog Hair. It is about knitting with dog hair. Literally. Still sells pretty well, too. In '97, Kendall went to McCann-Erickson, where she ran the U.S. Airways business and helped launch Agilent Technologies in 25 countries in six languages, in about 80 days.

What happened next was "one of those networking things." Jim Berrien, who is president of Forbes Magazine Group -- well, it turns out that he and Kendall had known each other since they were kids. The two of them had talked about marketing over dinner now and again, over the years. And so, one day, Jim kind of rang up Kendall, out of the blue, and said, "This is really an insane idea, but would you ever consider working with me?"

It wasn't quite as simple as that, of course. Kendall first had to get through "a rigorous interview process with the Forbes brothers and all of that," she says, adding: "It all came to be, and I just feel like the luckiest person on the planet because I've got the best job in marketing."

It's a job she's had for about three years now. And, yes, she is every bit as energetic as she sounds.



What is the spirit of Forbes?

It's about a few things. It's about an unshakeable belief in the power of free enterprise. It's about supporting the free flow of intellectual and financial capital across borders and around the world. It's about confidence in the power of talent and good ideas and perseverance to create success for businesses and for individuals. And it's about a passion for a life well lived.

Which is Malcolm Forbes.

Which is Malcolm. It's interesting because that has been part of this brand since the very beginning, 85 years ago. I mean, literally, the very first column that B.C. Forbes wrote in the very first issue in 1917 included this line: "The purpose of business is to create happiness, not to pile up millions." When Malcolm was alive that was crystal clear. It wasn't just about business; there was this whole other dimension to it.

So how do you keep Malcolm's spirit alive without his presence?

It's just hard-wired into this organization. It's the sort of audience we attract. It's the sort of editors and writers we attract. It's the sort of people on the business side that we attract. The Forbes brothers -- Steve, Bob, Kip and Tim -- are actively involved in the business every day.

We have in place elements of this brand -- this business -- that are each reflections of "life, well lived." The Highlander yacht is one of them. We have the Forbes Estate out in New Jersey that we use for client entertainment. We have a chateau in Normandy. We have a fleet of motorcycles and we take our customers on big motorcycle rides. We have a fleet of hot air balloons. We have a ranch out in Colorado.

All of that is part of the brand and part of the business and part of the Forbes experience. We have galleries on the first floor of this building that have The Faberge Collection and Malcolm's collection of toy soldiers and toy boats. So, literally, you can't come into this building without being aware that it's more than just about the balance sheets.

Isn't there a store there, as well? Is the Forbes Collection part of that?

People who knew Malcolm say that if you put all four of his sons together you get Malcolm.

The gallery downstairs has no retail aspect to it. The Forbes Collection is a licensing group that offers home furnishings, jewelry and so forth, through a series of licensees.

Would the Forbes brand ever line-extend into, say, the hotel business or the airline business?

The brand has the kind of strength that we could go there. Are we going to go there in the short-term? Probably not. But as far as I'm concerned, there's always going to be a really vital and vibrant business in serving and delivering an audience of senior business decision-makers and affluent consumers.

That's really what we're all about. That's what we do. Our value proposition is delivering insight and information that ensures success. We do that through the magazine, we do that on Forbes on Fox -- our television program. We certainly do it on Forbes.com. It's not limited to print.

Does that change at all when you move outside the U.S.?

It's a little different. We are actually growing into a strong global brand. We launched a sister publication, Forbes Global, five years ago, a magazine that caters to senior business executives around the world. Twenty percent of our traffic right now to Forbes.com is from outside the U.S., and we have local language editions of Forbes in Japan and in Brazil. This year we're launching Forbes Korea and Forbes China.

Forbes' heritage is as an American brand, but the spirit of free enterprise is not a concept that's exclusively American. The brand is embraced by certain people in every single part of the world.

You have a new ad campaign out there that takes a real shot at Fortune.

Yes. We have a heritage of doing that. We've been known for very bold and risky advertising. As somebody who comes out of 20 years in the ad business, it is so fabulous to be working for people who will approve great work, and risky work. That's just a real joy.

When we have something important to say, and need to make people re-think the category, we're not afraid to say it in a way that's really bold. That's not a random characteristic -- it comes right out of the brand. We have a point-of-view and we're not afraid to state it, to go against the grain and be counter-conventional. Our editorial reflects that and our advertising reflects it, too.

The campaign focuses on the declining readership of Fortune. The message seems to be: "Our CPM is better than their CPM." Is that the thinking behind it?

That's part of it. We actually have one execution that really is about CPM, because our efficiency is quite extraordinary versus all of our key competitors. But the deeper and more important message is that we serve this audience of senior management and they are bonded to our brand. They have a commitment to this brand. They find the information they need -- they find inspiration and affirmation. They really get this brand and it's a long-term, loyal relationship.

That's really important. As an advertiser, I want to know that I'm reaching a really important audience and that I'm reaching them with some frequency over time. I'm a lot more interested in that than somebody who happens to pick me up on a newsstand and flip through. We just have a very committed reader base that's comprised of the people who are driving our advertisers' businesses. The same is not true of our competitors.

What are some of the more innovative, interesting ways that you present the Forbes opportunity to your advertisers?

One of the things that is so interesting about this organization is that we are not a big media conglomerate. Our key competitors are. I love the fact that we're independent for a couple of reasons. First of all, it means we're beholden to no one but our readers. There is an authenticity and an integrity that comes along with that.

Last year's Executive Women's Forum clicked and turned into magic.

Secondly, we can put together really creative, wonderful combinations of access to our audience and make it work. There is not a lot of bureaucracy here and we can really customize the solution for a particular advertiser. So we're putting together special packages, special creative units in print -- some of which are going to start to run within the next couple of months -- which are really mind blowing. They're actually print spectaculars. They're really cool and have never been done before.

We're doing more and more custom conferences for our advertisers, where we put together really important, valuable and unique content for them and their best customers. We bring them together in a combination of conference business meeting and, often, entertainment venue. We can entertain here at our offices, we can entertain on the Highlander -- with our best customers we share those resources.

What is the story behind the Executive Women's Forum?

This is my second year chairing that event and it will be my third year attending the event. It's really an extraordinary group of women who assemble for this. I've been to a lot of conferences and know that you can have the greatest agenda in the world and it can be wonderful and valuable. But sometimes it kind of clicks and turns into magic.

Two or three weeks before last year's event, we secured Sherron Watkins from Enron as our keynote speaker. What a neat and courageous lady she is. The theme of the conference was, Thriving in a Time of Risk, and Sherron kicked us off with a keynote speech about her experience at Enron that was absolutely unbelievable.

What was so interesting was that all the other executives, who had prepared their speeches ahead of time, also focused on the importance of ethics and values in business. All the hallway buzz was about that, and the event sort of turned into the first "ethics in business conference" before everybody started putting those together and leveraging what was going on in the news. It was really an extraordinary experience.

Forbes doesn't stage that many conferences and yet one of them is for women. Why is that?

One reason is that we have always celebrated the entrepreneurial spirit and people who need to work a little harder to make it happen -- people who are eager to do things in a different way. If that isn't women in business, I don't know what is! It just makes sense for Forbes.

The other reason is, going back again to B.C. Forbes' very first issue in 1917, he had not an article but a department on women in business. This was 1917 -- I mean, this was really way out there in 1917! It's really, really wild. It's just not what you would think. So, again, to me it's a very authentic part of this brand's heritage. It's not a stretch for Forbes; it's right in our wheelhouse.

What do you see as the role -- or even the responsibility -- of Forbes as a member of the marketing community?

We know so much about senior business executives and affluent consumers. We literally have a daily dialogue with business leaders around the world. We need to do a better job of sharing that insight with other marketers. We really understand these people and know what's keeping them up at night. We understand how they want their information and we could do a much better job of sharing that insight with our advertisers.

We're all drowning in data and lacking understanding. This is another part of the heritage that just blows me away. If you look at Steve's column, there's a quote at the top that says, "With all thy getting, get understanding." That was from his grandfather's first column. That's what it's all about. It's not just a pile of facts -- it's what do I do with them; help me understand. That is what Forbes delivers.